Youn Yuh-jung wins Oscar for best supporting actress

Movies

Published: 26 Apr. 2021, 10:53 Updated: 26 Apr. 2021, 13:28

Youn Yuh-jung wins Oscar for best supporting actress

Brad Pitt, right, poses with Yuh-Jung Youn, winner of the award for best actress in a supporting role for ″Minari,″ in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, April 25, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. [AP/YONHAP]

Youn Yuh-jung won the Oscar in the category of Best Supporting Actress at the 93rd ceremony held at the Union Station in Los Angeles on Sunday evening.

Youn is the first Korean actor to ever win an Oscar.

She was recognized for her role in director Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari” (2020), in which she played a grandmother named Soon-ja who tries to hold her family together as they chase after the American dream.

Youn Yuh-jung from ″Minari″ [PAN CINEMA]

The other actors nominated in the category were Maria Bakalova for “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” Glenn Close for “Hillbilly Elegy,” Olivia Colman for “The Father” and Amanda Seyfried for “Mank.”

Including her Oscar, Youn has collected 39 awards for her performance in “Minari” from various film associations and festivals such as the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Screen Actors Guild awards.

In the Oscar’s 93-year history, Youn’s win marks only the second time that an Asian actor has been recognized for the category. Japanese-American Miyoshi Umeki was the first to win best supporting actress for her role in “Sayonara” (1957).

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]